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Breathing Slower and Less: The Greatest Health Discovery Ever?

While breathing 2-3 times more than the medical norm, most people believe that they have good or normal breathing. Some of them even say that they are "barely breathing". But normal breathing is so tiny that healthy people experience nearly no sensations in relation to their breathing at rest.

Over 90% of modern people suffer from breathing problems. The common problems include chest breathing, mouth breathing, and hyperventilation (increased minute ventilation), all of which reduce oxygen levels in body cells and promote chronic diseases.

Minute ventilation rates (chronic diseases)

Condition
Minute
ventilation
Number of
people
All references or
click below for abstracts
Normal breathing
6 L/min
-
Healthy Subjects
6-7 L/min
>400
Heart disease
15 (±4) L/min
22
Heart disease
16 (±2) L/min
11
Heart disease
12 (±3) L/min
132
Heart disease
15 (±4) L/min
55
Heart disease
13 (±4) L/min
15
Heart disease
15 (±4) L/min
88
Heart disease
14 (±2) L/min
30
Heart disease
16 (±6) L/min
20
Pulm hypertension
12 (±2) L/min
11
Cancer
12 (±2) L/min
40
Diabetes
12-17 L/min
26
Diabetes
15 (±2) L/min
45
Diabetes
12 (±2) L/min
8
Diabetes
10-20 L/min
28
Diabetes
13 (±2) L/min
20
Asthma
13 (±2) L/min
16
Asthma
15 L/min
8
Asthma
14 (±6) L/min
39
Asthma
13 (±4) L/min
17
Asthma
12 L/min
101
COPD
14 (±2) L/min
12
COPD
12 (±2) L/min
10
COPD
14 L/min
3
Sleep apnea
15 (±3) L/min
20
Liver cirrhosis
11-18 L/min
24
Hyperthyroidism
15 (±1) L/min
42
Cystic fibrosis
15 L/min
15
Cystic fibrosis
10 L/min
11
Cystic fibrosis*
10 L/min
10
CF and diabetes*
10 L/min
7
Cystic fibrosis
16 L/min
7
Cystic fibrosis
18 L/min
9
Cystic fibrosis*
13 (±2) L/min
10
Cystic fibrosis
11-14 L/min
6
Epilepsy
13 L/min
12
CHV
13 (±2) L/min
134
Panic disorder
12 (±5) L/min
12
Bipolar disorder
11 (±2) L/min
16
Dystrophia myotonica
16 (±4) L/min
12

Note that advanced stages of asthma can lead to lung destruction, ventilation-perfusion mismatch,
and arterial hypercapnia causing further reduction in body oxygen levels.

The situation with automatic breathing in ordinary people is slightly better, but much worse than it was during first decades of the 20th century.

"Hence, normal breathing corresponds to a healthy organism" Dr. K. P. Buteyko, Dr. Buteyko's Lecture in the Moscow State University on 9 December 1969.

The website has over 400 web pages. It is based on clinical experience of more than 600 Russian doctors and 100's of Western clinical studies quoted here. You likely can end your health misery and achieve normal health and possibly super fitness following ideas described here.

To navigate this site, use the main menu above and the submenu on the left side. There are also several major categories with their own menus at the bottom of each page.

Solutions to breathing problems

The Buteyko breathing method is approved by the Russian Ministry of Health

The Buteyko method was officially approved by the Ministry of Health in Russia to treat asthma. But Russian and Ukrainian medical doctors also had successful clinical trials on people with hypertension, radiation disease, hepatitis B, liver cirrhosis, cancer (6 times less mortality for an experimental group with metastatic cancer which practiced breathing exercises) and even HIV-AIDS.

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Reference pages: Breathing norms and the DIY body oxygen test:
- Breathing norms: Parameters, graph, and description of the normal breathing pattern
- Body-oxygen test (CP test) : How to measure your own breathing and body oxygenation (two in one) using a simple DIY test
.....

References: pages about CO2 effect:
- Vasodilation: CO2 expands arteries and arterioles facilitating perfusion (or blood supply) to all vital organs
- The Bohr effect: How and why oxygen is released by red blood cells in body tissues
- Nerve stabilization: Carbon dioxide has powerful calmative and sedative effects on brain neurons and nerve cells
.....

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